[Author's Note – This story is my first attempt at a long story, so pardon any plot bungles I make. Please review and let me know what you think! Also (this is important) this story is being moved from my Wattpad account, AWannabeWrit-ah. I'm working on moving it from one site to the other, so please don't call plagiarism on me! I'm just shifting sites! Nothing suspicious here! And now, the introduction…]

Disclaimer: I own none of the following characters: they're all from Man of Action's drawing board. The plot line (and one or two OC's) is mine, however. This is, incidentally, the only disclaimer I will be writing for this entire story. Unless I think of a funny one.

Greenville, Ohio
Three days after the New Event

The computer screen hummed quietly as figures, charts and numbers flickered on and off the screen. The bleary-eyed man sitting at the keyboard worked feverishly, running his hands through his tangled black hair to keep it out of his eyes. His fingers flew across the keys as though he were playing the piano, and his pupils dilated and expanded as he scanned each exhaustive page of data. Then, groaning, he straightened his limbs and rose, moving to the center of the room.

He had worked non-stop for the past 72 hours, trying to salvage the empire that he had built and ruled so long ago. But more importantly, he worked to save his life, tightening screws and inserting wires as he walked. He could already feel his limbs being drained of their power as the nanites that gave him strength were slowly exhausted and disposed of.

Ever since his "travel agent", as he snidely called her, had brought him on this unrequested excursion to limbo, he had been trying to undo what that annoying teenager, Rex, had done. His knuckles whitened around the mallet he was holding. Did that impertinent brat have a clue of the damage he had caused, of the hopes that he had so callously dashed? Soon, Van Kleiss thought to himself. Soon, he would fix what had been broken, and the world would be his for the taking once more.

After Breach had taken him through her portal, he had barely enough nanites in his body left to reconstruct his ruined arm, and after he'd felt Rex's global interference he'd had to hack a stolen Providence earpiece to find out what was going on. He could hear partying in that base of theirs as they raucously celebrated the deactivation of all nanites on the earth, which would indubitably lead to the eventual death of one Van Kleiss. But this old dog has some new tricks up his sleeve, Kleiss sniggered to himself. Then he mentally slapped himself. Talking to myself, am I now? The exhaustion must be getting to me. This only reinforced his determination to finish his job and repair the wreck that was his life. It was a miserable life, though, wasn't it? Chased through millennia by a plasmoid tachyon field that had later turned out to be Breach, kept as a captive scientist by a crazy dictator who wanted to rule the universe, cut off from his life-sustaining nanites by the fabric of time-space, trapped in the middle of (literally) nowhere, the list went on, and on, and on, and on, and…

The man's head slowly drooped forward on his neck as his limbs relaxed, floating away on a tranquil sea of silence…

The door behind him creaked open slowly, swinging awry on its hinges. Van Kleiss started, realizing with a start how close he had been to falling asleep. That would be unacceptable. He turned around to see who had entered, and found nobody standing in the doorway. Ever since he had accosted the dilapidated schoolhouse as his temporary base, he had been more and more intrigued by the apparently random items scattered through the building. A room full of pink stuffed bunnies, a cafeteria infested with giant Evo spiders, and now doors that swung open by themselves.

The floor must be uneven, he thought, returning to his work, completely missing the mechanical blue wolf who had been standing at his shoulder for some time now.

Biowulf stood there awhile, musing to himself. Master had been working himself into the ground lately, and the loyal henchman pondered the plus points of simply knocking Van Kleiss out right now and claiming later that he must have fainted from exhaustion. Biowulf thought about it, and then dismissed the idea. It wouldn't do for Master to fall asleep here – wherever here was.

Van Kleiss' right-hand man had very mixed feelings regarding their little jaunt to Breach's private chunk of insanity, and inwardly wondered if he should have stayed behind to be cured by Rex. Biowulf had no memory of his life before the Event, and had always wracked his mind for memories – was he an orphan? Were his parents still alive? What was his real name? But his crooked brain gave no new memories, only old ones of a young freak running through a dark city, hiding in alleys, spat at by complete strangers until a man with a golden hand appeared to save him.

Biowulf rationalized to himself – even if he was cured, the justice system wasn't going to be so lenient as to simply give him a free pass from jail for the numerous crimes against humanity he had performed in his time as a rogue Evo. Why, they would lock him up and throw the keys down the nearest geothermal vent if he so much as poked his nose 'round the corner. Still, that insidious, traitorous voice in the depths of his mind said, that Rex kid is a big softie – and you did help him out in that fiasco in the Bug Jar. Maybe if you talked to him, something could be done? Perhaps he might even – No. This line of thinking was too cowardly to be considered. Biowulf immediately stopped thinking about anything regarding seditious (as he viewed it) actions and shifted his mind from the disturbing topic of changing sides.

Unfortunately, this broke his concentration, and the accursed questions continued to pour in – Had he played any sports? Did he have siblings? The questions accumulated, pounding at his brain cells, rising in his mind like a tidal wave, nearly choking him with the overwhelming thought of what might have been, until he brutally stuffed them into a box in the back of his mind. A handy trick he had picked up along the years – your mind won't survive very long if you let it run wild with its thoughts. But, speaking of his thoughts – Biowulf snapped back to attention and decided to cough softly.

Biowulf's mouth, which had not been designed for coughing softly, decided to let out a strident bark that made the wolf-man wince.

Van Kleiss' head snapped up when he heard the noise, his red-rimmed eyes scanning the room until he noticed Biowulf standing directly behind him. He gave a slight start, and mentally made a note to commend the wolf later for his impressive stealth skills.

"Ah, Biowulf. You wish to speak to me?"

Biowulf nodded. "Skalamander woke up around an hour ago, and is brawling with that…girl again. I came to ask you if should intervene on behalf of either of them."

Van Kleiss sighed as he knuckled his eyes wearily. When they had arrived at Greenville, Breach had taken off to "go to where the stillness is", whatever that meant. He assumed that it was Breach-speak for needing to do some soul-searching about the opportunity for being cured that had just slipped by the Pack. After Kleiss had found some monitors and stone-age modems and Biowulf had located the school computer lab, the henchman had worked to get an operating base running, but Van Kleiss had to finish his project first before he could consider more mundane tasks.

They were both working diligently when they were rudely interrupted by a giant purple…thing with an old young girl's face (if that makes any sense at all) that had barreled through the door, demanding to know whether they were Breach's new "favorites". After Kleiss had tried unsuccessfully to drain her of her nanites (she somehow detached the drained limb from her body and grew another one), Skalamander had appeared and knocked her back out the door, and since then the two had been going at each other hammer and tongs intermittently.

"I cannot have any more interruptions, Biowulf. The project at hand requires my utmost attention, and a single slip-up could result in the end of the Evo race."

Biowulf nodded. He would see to it that all remained calm outside. As he left, Van Kleiss turned back to his jumbled workbench, already running calculations in his head. Should he put the transponder at the head of the circuit, or should it go in after the nanite micro-analyzer? He began fiddling with the chips once more, trying different arrangements and running test sequences in his head, seeing which ones would work.

The jumbled mass of wires and transmitters slowly began to come together and started to form the rough outline of the diagrams sketched on the makeshift blueprints he had hastily drawn up. After another hour of tinkering and testing, he was sure he had perfected the design. Soon, he could start his machine up, and then he could ensure his continued existence.

Van Kleiss smiled in the dark.

xxXxx

A/N – There it is, the first chappie! Please review! Flames are welcome (critical analysis of my own text is always difficult for me, so any comments would be wonderful)! One issue I'm struggling with: do you think my chapters should be longer? What's the ideal length? Expect the next update before Halloween – sorry, I'm a slow writer.